11Aug14

Power struggle on Baghdad streets as Maliki replaced but refuses to go

Iraq's president named a new prime minister to end Nuri al-Maliki's eight-year
rule on Monday, but the veteran leader refused to go after deploying militias
and special forces on the streets, creating a dangerous political showdown in
Baghdad.

Washington, which helped install Maliki following its 2003 invasion that toppled
Saddam Hussein, congratulated Haidar al-Abadi, a former Maliki lieutenant
who was named by President Fouad Masoum to replace him.

Maliki said in a televised speech the president's decision to name a
replacement for him was a "dangerous violation" of the constitution and,
flanked by political allies, he vowed "we will fix the mistake."

Maliki's son-in-law, Hussein al-Maliki, called the move "illegal" and said it would
be overturned in court. "We will not stay silent," he said.

Washington delivered a stern warning to Maliki not to "stir the waters" by
using force to cling to power.

A Shi'ite Muslim Islamist, Maliki is blamed by his erstwhile allies in Washington
and Tehran for driving the alienated Sunni minority into a revolt that threatens
to destroy the country. Leaders of Iraq's Sunni and Kurdish communities have
demanded he go, and many fellow Shi'ites have turned against him.

U.S. President Barack Obama said the naming of a new prime minister was an
important stride for Iraq toward rebuffing Islamic State militants, who have
overrun large swathes of northern Iraq.

Obama said he spoke with Abadi to congratulate him and to urge him to
quickly form a new cabinet that is broadly representative of Iraq's different
ethnic and religious communities.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also praised the naming of Abadi and
urged him to seek a broad-based government acceptable to all components of
Iraqi society, the United Nations said.

The new political crisis comes just days after Washington launched its first
military action in Iraq since pulling its troops out in 2011. U.S. warplanes have
bombed Sunni insurgents from the Islamic State, who have marched through
northern and western Iraq since June.

Washington says it is taking limited action to protect a Kurdish autonomous
region and prevent what Obama called a potential "genocide" of religious
minorities targeted by the militants.

The Pentagon said U.S. airstrikes conducted since Friday have slowed the
operational tempo of the Islamic State but are unlikely to substantially weaken
the group.

U.S. aircraft on Monday hit four Islamic State checkpoints and destroyed
several of the group's vehicles near Mount Sinjar, where thousands of people
of the Yazidi religious sect have taken refuge, the Pentagon said.

Washington is also directly supplying weapons to Kurdish fighters, U.S. officials
said. The weapons were supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency but the
Pentagon may soon start arming the Kurds, the officials said. They declined to
specify when the supply program began or what sort of arms it included.

New Gains for Islamic State

Islamic State fighters made new gains against Kurdish forces despite four days
of U.S. airstrikes, while Baghdad, long braced for the Sunni fighters to attack,
was now tensing for possible clashes between Maliki and rivals within the
Shi'ite majority.

President Masoum asked Abadi to form a government that could win the
support of all groups in a parliament elected in April. In remarks broadcast on
television, Masoum, a Kurd, urged Abadi to "form a broader-based
government" over the next month.

Abadi urged national unity against the "barbaric" Islamic State, which has
driven tens of thousands from their homes as it swept aside Baghdad's troops
to consolidate a "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria.

"We all have to cooperate to stand against this terrorist campaign launched on
Iraq and to stop all terrorist groups," he said in broadcast remarks after
meeting Masoum.

As police and elite armed units, many equipped and trained by the United
States, locked down the capital's streets, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
aimed a stark warning at Maliki against fighting to hold on to power.

"There should be no use of force, no introduction of troops or militias in this
moment of democracy for Iraq," Kerry said. "The government formation
process is critical in terms of sustaining stability and calm in Iraq and our hope
is that Mr. Maliki will not stir those waters.

"There will be little international support of any kind whatsoever for anything
that deviates from the legitimate constitution process that is in place and being
worked on now."

Under Iraq's post-Saddam governing system, designed to avert conflict by
giving all groups a stake, the speaker of parliament is a Sunni and the largely
ceremonial president a Kurd. Most authority is wielded by the prime minister, a
Shi'ite.

Maliki's opponents accuse him of abusing the system by keeping key security
posts in his own hands instead of sharing them with other groups, alienating
Sunnis in particular by ordering the arrest of their political leaders. Islamic
State fighters were able to exploit that resentment to win support from other
Sunni armed groups.

Maliki's Shi'ite State of Law bloc emerged as the biggest group in parliament in
the April election, but does not have enough seats to rule without support
from Sunnis, Kurds and other Shi'ite blocs, nearly all of which demand he go.

He has nevertheless stayed on in a caretaker capacity while arguing that the
constitution requires his bloc to be given the first opportunity to form a
government. He has used courts before to keep power: in the previous
election in 2010, when State of Law was second, a court let him form a
cabinet.

'Pretty Relieved'

A U.S. official insisted Washington had not been involved in the selection of
Abadi but said "everybody is pretty relieved that they have chosen somebody
and that it was not Maliki".

Maliki also appears to have alienated his supporters in Iran, the regional Shi'ite
power, which has sent military advisers to help organize the battle against the
Islamic State. Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric, Ali Sistani, all but ordered
Maliki to leave power on Friday, declaring that politicians who cling to power
were making a "grave mistake".

Obama says a more inclusive government in Baghdad is a pre-condition for
more aggressive U.S. military support against the Islamic State. He has
rejected calls in some quarters for a return of U.S. ground troops, apart from
several hundred military advisers sent in June.

The Islamic State, which sees Shi'ites as heretics who deserve to be killed, has
ruthlessly moved through one town after another, using tanks and heavy
weapons it seized from soldiers who have fled in the thousands.

On Monday, police said the fighters had seized the town of Jalawla, 115 km
(70 miles) northeast of Baghdad, after driving out the forces of the
autonomous Kurdish regional government.

On Sunday, a government minister said Islamic State militants had killed
hundreds of people from the small, Kurdish-speaking Yazidi religious sect,
burying some alive and taking women as slaves. No confirmation was available
for the killings.

Thousands of Yazidis have taken refuge in the past week on the arid heights
of Mount Sinjar, close to the Syrian border. The Islamic State considers the
Yazidis, who follow an ancient faith derived from Zoroastrianism, to be "devil
worshippers".

A U.N. official said on Monday that thousands of Yazidis have been able to
escape in the past three days with help from Kurdish security forces and
others. But the official said many are still trapped on the mountain.

The bloodshed could increase pressure on Western powers to do more to help
those who have fled the Islamic State's offensive. They have already dropped
supplies and U.S. aircraft have been bombing the militants since Friday.

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